Samsung Galaxy S5 to cost $700

Samsung Canada and a number of carriers will be officially releasing the flagship Galaxy S5 on April 11th. The price point, as expected, is going to range between $229 and $249 on a 2-year contract.

The GS5 will be available at 11 carriers — Rogers, Bell, Telus, Fido, Virgin Mobile, Koodo, MTS, Eastlink, SaskTel, Videotron and Wind Mobile — and while it’s not a massive surprise we also have been tipped that the retail price will be $700.

Many carriers have already gone live with ‘pre-registration’ or pre-orders. Rogers has already gone live with pre-orders, as has Quebec-based Videotron. An internal Bell doc that we received reveals that “Galaxy lovers can pre-order the Galaxy S5 in stores starting April 1, 2014. This superphone makes taking amazing pictures easy, can help improve your fitness, keeps your information secure, is water & dust resistant and more!” TELUS will also be going live with pre-orders on April 1st.

(Thanks tipster!)

stevedion

Any ideas if carriers will offer 32Gb models?

Dimitri

No they will not unfortunately. Samsung stopped doing this when they dropped the 32GB S3 after a few months after launch. Only 16GB with SD card will be available

Evolution is a Hoax

I have an S4 and got a SD card but never could get anything on it, and ended up not using it like my son does. he has an apple product and cant add storage and is upset. — Is there any reason to upgrade from an S4 to a S5. I like my S4. The ONLY issue I have is with the Apps wanting everything including my underwear as far as permissions go. I don’t want to be carrying around a bugged phone which strips me of my privacy. So, I got rid of any App that was too intrusive. (for goodness sake, some even ask to make phone calls and to change my text messages. Wow.) As for the phone, its pretty good. I now cover my cameras front and back with scotch tape unless I am going to use them, and leave my phone in another room if I am going to have a private conversation.

—

Dimitri

You need to insert the micro sd card into the phone, plug the phone into your computer via USB cable. Once you are done that it will automatically bring up a window on your computer as a file opener. Open it up & you can create folders in the SD card & you can drop music, pictures & videos on it.

As for the phone it self. I have the Note 3 & selling it to get the S5. Why? I like technology & i change it up ever so often. While the S4 users shouldn’t change the phone it will be nice if they want too. The S5 gives them a bigger camera MP, Brighter screen, Bigger battery, more software improvements then the S4. It all depends on the person you know?

Evolution is a Hoax

Thanks! I have really liked my phone for some very basic reasons. the Hot spot works, takes a minute to get up and going, but works great, uses lots of battery of course, but great. — I think I am losing my vision or some of it, so using the camera to take a pic so I can blow text up works but I find getting the focus to work nice takes a bit of playing with it. — The alarm and the calendar really help me and its all easy and reliable. I use the phone also to listen to books, some times the chapters get messed up, and that is an issue, but its great to be able to read like that faster than I could myself, any time any where in an instant. — The flash light is nice but 90% of the apps want to know all about you and I could only find one that isn’t intrusive. Its about 90% as bright as some others. — looking up a phone number is great, it gives you the option just to call from what you found. great, and its easy to add it to the contacts. That has been a great help. — checking to see if I have an email on my laptop from the phone is great too. but I find it impossible to answer a blog like this from the phone. — the other options calculator daily sent messages I get from some inspirational apps are also great. I think the phone is fantastic and how it can be used sensational. Sure there are little quirky things and a need to clamp down on Applications use of our privacy, but the phone. I am so glad I got it. — Oh, and one other great thing, sending pics on texts has helped my business. let workers show me something without being there. the only thing is to take a PDF and send it from and email to a text. that I haven’t been able to do. — Next hope they have a connection and accessories for medial things like blood pressure and wireless heart monitoring systems via blue tooth. It would be great to see the phone get used from everything from a timing light in a car to a blood sugar test.

What I would do if I was Samsung is invent a pace maker that sends a signal to your phone if there is an emergency, and when the battery is getting low, and can take a snap shot of a daily rhythm for a doctor. Now that would start a chain of events that would change the world.

Riddlemethis

Dumb mobile phones had calendar and alarms more than 25 years ago.

Evolution is a Hoax

after 2 months… Wow. — Yest PDA’s etc. had alarms and calendars, but this one works easy, this one is easy to see, and cancel. its all about being easy. — Even when you use the Hotspot, its just one button, accessible easy. — My only problem is right now, the phone goes black after receiving a call, and I wish there was a 4 second delay for me to use the speaker phone,,,, so I have to click the button and put the screen back on and then press it, so the person waits for 2 or 3 seconds while I do that. — Again, phones have had screen lights for ever.

Riddlemethis

You’re an early adopter. To be one you need to be educated in tech or better still give your endless cash to the needy or charity and not waste it on material things to satisfy ones ego.

Riddlemethis

If you have to ask yourself why then you know the answer is no. If you like to brag to people then buy it.

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

the syrup containers should hold precisely 32gb of syrup.

iKrontologist

Fact yes they’ll have 16gb and 32gb models on all carriers. Plus you can upgrade that with a 64gb card for 96gb total space and it comes with something like $500+ Dollars in bonus software and services. Dropbox 50gb, games, etc!

Some carriers in US will have $0 down fees!

Move to America Land of the Free! ……well almost Free till our government started taking all our rights away and giving them to Corporations and illegal aliens! ;-p

Dimitri

I could see it as your Flextab owing amount will be $450. Rogers already has it priced on their site for $249.99 on a 2 year term & whoever has Rogers First rewards, pays $229.99 for it as they offer you 2,000 points which equal to $20 of your S5 price. ( This is ONLY if you reserve the device with them, no walk ins as they state on their site).

$699 is a but much tho i would say. I would rather see it for $550 – $599 at most or a bit less then that.

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

699$ is quite a large sum for mobile syrup!

artlukm2

It’s rather ridiculous to borrow money for something as trivial as a phone. Borrowing money for any depreciating/disposable item (other than a car) is just not a good idea.

While that is true, you aren’t borrowing money to get the device seeing as you are paying the device with your own money. The $20 is a gift towards you as you are reserving the device.

I am selling my Note 3 for $500 flat. I put an extra $250& buy it outright OR i pay $550 & do the upgrade. I save $200 on doing the upgrade but stuck paying that $200 over the months to Rogers.

Max Fireman

Not worth it, at all. HTC new One looks better anyways. OPPO aswell.

bigshynepo

Sounds like the Sony Xperia Z2 will come in at 699 – 749 as well and in my opinion, it offers more for the price point than the S5 (Extra GB of RAM, bigger battery,etc.).

southerndinner

And it’ll still struggle to sell even a fraction of what Samsung and Apple sell.

southerndinner

The new. HTC One looks just as marginal of an upgrade as the iPhone S devices.

Haven’t you heard, the new hipster phone company is Sony? The cool kids of the internet have embraced Sony as their new failing ‘don’t buy a Samsung, buy x’ device this year.

KiwiBri

I think the Oppo 7 will be the next Hip one to get (or maybe the LG Pro 2?/G3 ?)

southerndinner

If Oppo has decent devices then sure. It can’t be hard to beat out unreliable Sony on that front

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

are you the one in charge of the mobile syrup?

wes

I have too much hope in project Ara. Not wasting that much money on any phone.

bigshynepo

Judging by how shafted Canada got by the MotoMaker program, I can imagine Ara taking forever to get to our market.

wes

Not so sure abt that since they want to bring it to the next 5-6 billion people.

Dimitri

That can be done in the US / Europe if they want 5-6 Billion excluding Canada. IF the CRTC & Carriers do not agree to it, we do not get it like Moto maker. We are stuck without it yet the US / Europe have it.

wes

They are prob going to sell it on Google play store.

wes

They will sell project ara on google play store. Just as they sold the Nexus line. I doubt CRTC or Carriers can do anything about that, just like they can’t do anything about the Nexus line.

This is assuming you use one of those shared plans. Outright purchase is cheaper by $11.29. Plus, you can change to any plans you want, even voice only plans. No contracts tie you up, no early cancellation fee of $12.50. I don’t get the logic of going with contracts here.

Comapring option 3 Vs Option 1, you will save about $174 over two years, which is $7.25 a month.

The math does not lie here. I am not saying people are making stupid decisions but all I want to make sure is that people are making informed and educated decisions about their cell phone expenses.

I used to be working in the “big red” firm and the goal is to discoruage people from buying the phone outright and on prepaid. Everyone in any store will attempt the best to scam you into a contract. Also, when they know you are buying any new and hot phone outright, they just don’t sell to you as they say it is reserved on contract customers. You have to wait for another two to three months.

bigshynepo

Add up any service you pay for over 24 months and it gets pretty high. Car insurance, Groceries, Heat, Power, Water….multiply any of these bils by 24 and it’s amazing how much we pay for services every year (or two in this case).

bigshynepo

I totally agree that everything to do with wireless communication is totally anti-consumer but I do love the tech behind a good smartphone ^_^

Anaron

The $150 Moto G disagrees.

Anaron

And you know this, how? Or did you just pull it out of your a*s?

artlukm2

Google is all about affordable phones from the Play store. When the Moto G is gone, expect something else to take its place. Nexus 4 was a great deal and Nexus 5 isn’t bad either.

hyperhyper

No, that title belongs solely to the insurance companies. Term insurance, car insurance, home insurance, disability insurance, health insurance. It comes out to a lot more per year than D Kupp’s math.

Anaron

No it doesn’t. The $2400 figure includes the cost of a monthly plan for 2 years.

Anaron

It’s overpriced in most cases but it definitely isn’t a scam. It costs them a lot of money to build, maintain, and upgrade their wireless networks. If anything is a scam, it’s overage fees for data.

Anaron

Got a source for those <$20/month plans and $120 5" 720p devices?

KrispyInTO

Phones are very cheap in china. Look up the new xiaomi redmi note. equivalent to $130. 5.5inch 720p screen, octocore cpu,2gb ram,13mp camera. Other countries pay fractions of what we pay. In Romania you can get unlimited talk text and 1gb data for 3 dollars canadian a month.

artlukm2

The profit margins in insurance are not that high. The profit margins on devices like the iphone or the samsung s5 are absolutely astronomical.

artlukm2

No, they sell it to you for $700. The cost of the phone and the cost of service are completely unrelated issues. Samsung sells phones, not plans.

The 100% markup is bad enough, no need to overstate the case with silly numbers.

I chose the nexus 4 for $300 because I knew the markup was relatively small.

L Joel

what as a flip phone user do u even visit such sites. I am surprised your dial up connection can load this page

Comrade Yeti

Then don’t get one

artlukm2

My $300 nexus 4 disagrees.

JLishere

I have to echo that comment; in terms of cost, the $150 Moto G, $200 Nexus 4 and $350 Nexus 5 are far better options than any other phone in their respective categories, subsidized or not.

Robert Govan

The reason people go on contract is because they see that they can get the phone for “$0″ and jump at it without doing the math behind what they’re really doing.

Hank

It’s because they don’t have $700, but they can afford (sometimes not) paying it month to month. I did the math with my telus contract, and it ended up saving me $650, because they don’t have a byod discount, and I literally got the phone for $0.

Robert Govan

Actually Hank, with Telus’ SharePlus plans, if you bring your own device instead of taking one on contract, you’re saving $20 a month on the bill. It all depends on whether you can buy the phone outright for less than $480. If you can, then it’s absolutely worth it to not take a contract.

Hank

I didn’t know you could do that with a share plus plan. I guess the game has changed a lot with 2 year terms instead of 3.

Robert Govan

It has, sort of. Everyone has exactly the same plans right now, and basically the same phones (excluding exclusives,) so it’s all come down to which companies customer service you’ll want to be dealing with for the term of your contract 😉

L Joel

The real PITA is that my GS3 on a 3 year plan cost me 150$ upfront and i have a great 60$ plan with 5gigs of data… Today that costs me 120$… the cost of the phone is nothing its the damn 2 year gouge… BYOD is a joke too…. I had asked if i could keep this plan when the 3 year expires… I was told not likely especially if i want a new device. We all need to stop getting hung up on the device price. The monthy rates are WAY over priced. Why is that the BYOD rates are still way more than my current rate?

Robert Govan

It’s all about length of the contract at that point. Picture it like amortizing a mortgage over 20 years instead of 25. The bank will want a higher interest rate on that mortgage.

D Kupp

You can keep your exisitng plan for as long as you like given that you have to buy your new phone outright going forward. They cannot remove you from your old plan.

L Joel

And that is where a GS5 at 700$ is scary at first but probably my best option to keep my good plan(i suppose a great plan based on the rates now)

D Kupp

Here is what I think… People should be more concern about their monthly payment of the service instead of worrying too much about the upfront payment of the phone.

L Joel

agreed, and that is all i really care about. I surprices me how there has not been a backlash against the new 2 year price hikes… Everyone just keeps paying,

danbob999

If you don’t have $700 you don’t have the money to buy such a phone over the months either.

taxidriver9

When there were 3 year terms, the base plan for a smartphone was $50. For 36 months, this costed $1800 over 3 years. Now its $2400 over 2 years. If you consider a 6 year period while looking at revenue per customer, earlier they would have earned $3600 excluding cost of the phone. Now, they make $7200 in the same period, excluding cost of the phone. This is madness.

Eluder

Where did you get your math from? It’s $1800 for 3 years at $50 x 36, and $1920 for 2 years at $80 x 24.

taxidriver9

Lol my bad. I took into account the cost of the device for the new plans

Markolopogous

Keeping in mind that these figures are using current plan prices. If you have an existing plan from years ago like me, buying the phone outright is just over $500 cheaper than taking the “subsidized” contract price and being forced to pay $85 a month for the same plan I currently have for $45 a month on Virgin.

D Kupp

That’s right… Even if you have one of those 2013 Xmas promote plans with 10% BYOD, you still save big bucks with current in the market plans.

Columbo

Buying a car is also cheaper if you buy it outright rather than pay interest to a dealership but it often comes down to the same situation – even at $700 it’s more than the average person’s disposable income at one given time.

D Kupp

But the price of a car would be in most cases be far more than the cost of a phone. Saving $700 is much easier to save for $5000 for even just a down payment of a car.

KiwiBri

So true about not wanting to sell to outright purchases. Used to be like that and also for upgraders for iPhones a few years back. They wanted new customers as they made more commi$$ion from them

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

I thought we were talking about mobile syrup??? have I been lead astray?

Chris

i agree, im never going on contract again

bogusy

HAHAHAHAH! wow. what junk

southerndinner

As opposed to BB and Sony and HTC devices that will sit and collect dust.

Oh wait stores won’t bother carrying BB

Johnny S.

How much did samsung pay you?

Brandon Orr

LOL at least a BB let’s you transfer files over Bluetooth between your Mac and BB. Oddly, the same can’t be said for an iPhone. Hence, it seems like junk is already outselling everyone. Congrats Southerndinner, you made a funny.

thedosbox

What, no “you could buy a Nexus 5 for half the price” or “you could buy three Moto G” comments?

L Joel

of course not! When the NEXUS 6 comes out we will. Common LOL the NEXUS 5 is like over 6 months old!

AReid

Do yourself a favour and just purchase a S4 for half the price and wait for the S6.

D Kupp

Yes… Looking at the spec of S4 Vs S5, one really wonder if it really worths the extra $300 for S5. CPU is 600 Mhz faster, screen it 0.1 bigger and that’s pretty much it… plus a load of useless apps that eat up your tiny 16GB.

Guest

Just got a OPPO for 450 on kijiji 😀

Johnny S.

I’m sure S-sheep can afford it

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

Were can I get some of this mobile syrup?

fuuckpoliticalcorrectedness

You people don’t undertand the feeling one has when walking down the road clenching a container of mobile syrup and sipping the delectable Beverage!

TP

$700!! I would get 2 Nexu…….hmm no need to mention again, eh?

bembol

Not $2,400 for a PLAN is insane but it’s a Luxury and no one is forcing you to buy into it.

I have so much respect for Apple, Google, Samsung, etc. of what PHONES can do today is insane.

Some forget if you take away the Camera, GPS. These two alone if you bought it separately will cost you $300, $500.

john

Because a module by itself is so useful….

Try the cost of a fully operating camera, and fully operating gps device. Put them together into the device that is always on you. That is the benefit.

bembol

No surprise here.

Garrett Cooper

That’s why you work for a company who give you a cell allowance. Hell, I pocket $50/month from my smartphone lol.

Jv

Yeah… i was in Spain last July (2013) My phone is unlocked, and I went to one of there local cell phone shops one of the bigger names and I got a regular plan like any old Joe would get (well i purchased their most expensive and extensive plan available). Now i Managed to blow though that plan and had to get more services (the cheap ones like you mentioned above 3 times) as they could not handle the amount of services i required in 10 days i spent more then i do spend for those exact same services back home here in Canada, Your view is Biased and Unfair… calm down there buddy… these companies want your return business and money… not your soul…

MXM4K

Wait a year and the phone will be less than half that price. It pays to lag the phone market by at least 6-18 months. You end up paying a ton less for very capable devices. Learn to root and flash custom ROMs on these devices for even more performance. There’s no need to pay the premium for being at the cutting edge unless you just want it as a fancy new toy. Phones with marginal improvements come out too often.

cartfan88

My thoughts exactly…but it’s the gotta have it now crowd they cater to.

choyM

But there will always be those who will pay even more just to be the first

James

Is this because there isn’t three year contracts any more? I got my s3 for free about 18 months ago on a 3 year contract. My bill is $65 a month. I like it this way. I don’t want to pay like $250 for a phone (although I won’t be getting it any time soon, will wait to upgrade when I get something cheap).

I am mostly happy with my s3. Would like better battery life, a stronger device (for the occasional drop and scratch), and some software fixes would be nice.

robinottawa

Tell me more about this “keep your information secure” thing. Sounds unlikely. Any links? I’ll google in the meantime (searching using the tool above is usually unproductive for some reason).

robinottawa

It isn’t the phone. It’s the monthly service. Rogers gave me a note 3 for $250 and did not ask me to up my monthly bill, which was reasonable even on month to month. All they got was a promise I’d continue paying for 2 years. Then I sold the phone and put $200 in my pocket and put the sim back in my old phone.

robinottawa

$200 to make and sell after spending 10 billion on infrastructure and development. If they’re doing so well, I assume you have them in your portfolio.

robinottawa

due, you’re talking about the service, not the phone. Did you read the article? We’re talking about the cost of phones here.

Chris

NEVER have another Samsung, pure crap. My S4 totally useless after less than 3 months, said it had been dropped and I can tell you for absolutely 100% sure, that it was NEVER dropped, EVER!!!! I was basically made to feel like a liar which was terribly upsetting. So I have had to go back to the vintage HTC that is worth ten times the Samsung phone!!!! The same thing happened to 2 other friends of mine, and nobody would honor warranty. They only thing they are interested in is taking your $$$$. So good luck to anyone buying a samsung!! Don’t expect good service!

iKrontologist

That’s your carrier….. not Samsung and just admit you’re a TROLL or worse….. iPROLE in disguise! lol…. I’ve had every Samsung S series till Galaxy Note 3 and none of them have had problems. I can hold on to them better than you probably did…. if you even owned one. Which I doubt! hahaha…..

So give it up… you ain’t going to change the fact that Samsung outsold Apple iPhones, HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Sony smartphones together last year alone with 315 Million total. This year they’ll sell 400 Million Smartphones to Smarter People!

Because obviously they are better at LIFE than YOU ARE!!! ;-p

iKrontologist

They already have 9 Million Pre-orders? Wow! ……that must be from carriers or something like that. But we already knew it was going to cost more. Because they’re already tossing around numbers like it costing $40 to $60 more to make and GS 4 already costs more to build than iPhone 5s!

And iDiots still think they’re getting better quality with cheaper recycled soft pot metal aluminum cases. Which is all DIE Cast Blocks Magically cut out by trained kids in China for $2.41 in dollars for the case in iPhone 5s! ;-p

VanIslWatcher

Pffffft. It’s a friggin’ phone. They can keep it.

Guest

True….maybe $20 per month but what does the average person make per month in our $$.

lladyon

$700 ? HAHAAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAAAAAHAHA!

Riddlemethis

Water resistant not waterproof. There’s a difference. You have the horrid KIES and Samsung Support to deal with. That’s why it’s best to stay with Apple or go with a Nexus true google phone.